After having my second individual tutorial, it dawned on me that I may not be as prepared for this work as I thought I was. While I believe these notebook posts are coming along well and developing there seems to be a bit of a miss match between the posts and my work, which is something I hope to improve on during the next couple of weeks. As well as this, time seems to be a bit of an issue as I like how my project is growing but am worried about the process of it and how substantial the finished product will be. To further develop my ideas I have continued on from my last few posts and done some more artist researches, both of which were given to me in my first individual tutorial.
artist research one – Sol Le Witt (1928 – 2007 )
Lewitt was a well known artist during his time do to his work falling under the category of minimalism and conceptual art, making him rather popular in the 1960s especially. Lewitt preferred to label his work as “structures” rather than sculptures due to the geometricity and simplism of the pieces, I believe this goes hand in hand with my work currently as I too have taken to quite simple installations.
As well as structures, Sol Le Witt also took to many other art forms, these being drawing, printmaking, etching and photography. making him talented in the art of mixed media. Due to his many areas of work, Lewitt has had many solo exhibitions and biographies written about his life, work and process. The first biography of his was titled ” A life of ideas “, written by Larry Bloom and was first published by the university of Wesleyan press and was released in the spring of 2019.
This artists work consists of a lot of shapes and patterns, which I too incorporate into my work from time to time. He experimented with a lot of square like shapes and patterns in which he multiplied too create a constant piece of work. The pieces Lewitt creates are usually monochromatic, I feel he does this as to not take away the structures true nature, it in itself is something therefore in this instance, colour is irrelevant.
After his death in 2007, his work is still influencing growing generations due to its simplicity and impact on the minimalistic movement.
second artist research – Donald Judd (1928 – 1994 )
Much like the above artist, Lewitt, Donald Judd is a creator who practiced mathematic and geometrical art, however the different between the two is that instead of keeping his pieces plain and simple, he added a pop of block colour onto each sculpture, which is exactly what I have been doing with my process and practice piece.
Donald Judd was also associated with the minimalist movement due to the simplistic nature of his spacious and large installations and is considered to be the leading national exponent of minimalism itself.
The two dimensional work he did is more or less identical to Sol Lewitt work, it consists of geometrical shapes, predominantly squares that have been formed into a repetitive patter, the only difference I can see here is the different with colour, Judd liked his bright and bold pop art like colours where as Sol Lewitt stuck to the monochromatic side of things.
Donald Judd’s work continues to influence artists as the years go on, and I feel my work is both a combination of Judd’s and Lewitt as I feel I connect both pieces together, somewhat interlocking them.
